


Always Better When We're Together

by austinthegrouch



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: 1960s, Aromantic, Aromantic Barbara Wright, Beards (Relationships), Canonical Character Death, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff, Gay Rights, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Historical Inaccuracy, Historical References, M/M, No Dialogue, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Pre-Stonewall, Queerplatonic Relationships, probably
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-29
Updated: 2018-11-29
Packaged: 2019-09-02 02:15:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16777642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/austinthegrouch/pseuds/austinthegrouch
Summary: Barbara and Ian are the closest of friends. The failure of the general public to believe this has some benefits for the both of them.





	Always Better When We're Together

**Author's Note:**

  * For [The Daleks Advocate (LauraDove)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LauraDove/gifts).
  * In response to a prompt by [The Daleks Advocate (LauraDove)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LauraDove/pseuds/The%20Daleks%20Advocate) in the [GenAndAroPrompts](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/GenAndAroPrompts) collection. 



> Slightly inspired by Maurice (go read that instead)  
>  **Prompt:**
> 
> Anything featuring Barbara and Ian portrayed as very close friends, and not in a romantic or sexual relationship.
> 
> Short or long, action or fluff, full cast or private interaction, during their time with the Doctor or afterwards, it doesn't matter as long as Barbara and Ian are clearly friends and not lovers.
> 
> Either of them may be in a relationship with a third party, as long as they're not interested in each other romantically or sexually.

In an unremarkable cemetery on the outskirts of London lie two equally unremarkable graves. _In_ these graves, however, lie two schoolteachers who turned out to be quite remarkable indeed despite their best efforts.

For Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright had seen things beyond most humans, even in a world where aliens were publicly acknowledged and cubes fell from the sky. And they were the first to befriend a crotchety old man, if not the greatest or most revered, and that meant something. To them at least, if not to the figure who echoed through their dreams. 

Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright never married. Everyone believed it would happen one day, an expectation turned into a running gag. A single man and a single woman, both charming in their own right, could hardly hope to escape from such allegations. But, to be fair to the gossip-mongers of Coal Hill School, they never did anything to prevent them. It served both Ian and Barbara well, for significantly different reasons.

Barbara's reason was simple. As an unattached woman of independent means approaching 40, life was easier with a companion who demanded nothing but her company (and the occasional stimulating debates that followed). Being labelled as a spinster would be the death blow to the career she valued so greatly, with a board who preferred their women young, handsome, and naive. So, if people assumed her lack of a ring was a tribute to free love, who was she to stop them? She didn't desire some harlequin romance or children of her own. Her true passion was her work and her real children were her pupils. The legacy she'd be most proud of was their success. If the price for that happiness was spending even more time with her dearest friend, she had no right to refuse.

Ian was a bit more complicated. For a gay man in the early 60's in a time where anti-sodomy laws were the rule, not the exception, being outed while working with children was practically a death sentence. Raids on gay pubs were more likely than not, and hate crimes could be justified. It was just easier to pretend. He was masculine, maybe a bit excessively, and it showed. No one would ever suspect that he was a bit bent. Except for Barbara, but she was a great deal cleverer than anyone else he knew. He enjoyed her company more than anyone else's, and sometimes he wondered if they could just continue to pull off this charade forever. If he could stuff his Wilde-like tendencies in a small filing cabinet in the back of his mind and live that perfect sexless marriage children imagined of their parents.

He couldn't. And when they met Ben from the Royal Navy, that urge in the back of his head just grew more and more irritating. So their duo became a trio, and if their discussions were less scholastic, they certainly weren't less entertaining. 

When Ian finally made a move, the first question Ben asked was about Barbara. He reassured him that she'd be overjoyed. That she noticed his interest before he did.

And he was right on both accounts. Time and space shift and change, but Ian and Barbara had always stayed the same. Just a little bit older, a little bit freer. 

Ian Chesterton and Ben Jackson never married. They couldn't, their deaths being over a decade before it was finally legalized in the UK. But if they had, Barbara would've been as much a part of it as themselves. The same way their lives would always be interconnected because they'd all caught the interest of just the right alien on just the right days.

The Doctor allows himself to ponder what might have been for just a moment, bouquet in hand. He turns around, coat flowing in the wind, and walks off into the distance. Then he jogs back and sets down the flowers, scolding himself along the way. His burden may be remembering, but that doesn't mean he's any good at it.

**Author's Note:**

> Ben had a burial at sea and everyone cried. 
> 
> I probably failed at actually fulfilling the prompt, but I kinda like it anyway.


End file.
